It's been some time since I last posted, but I just wanted to report back with what's been going on with me lately. I've just started my junior year here at Hopkins, which means I've moved on up, out of university housing and into my own apartment close by! I'm getting settled in for what will be my new home for the next two years, and getting accustomed to my new schedule of pretty small classes. This semester, I'm taking a variety of classes like Youth and Youth Movements in 19th and 20th Century and Early Modern China in the History department, Housing and Homelessness in the United States in the Sociology department, and Fundamentals of Epidemiology and Foundations of Healthcare Management and Leadership in the Public Health Studies program. I'm really looking forward to learning a lot from my incredibly knowledgeable professors.
Some of you might have noticed that I wasn't at Homewood this past Summer. I was actually not too far away, in Washington, DC doing a congressional internship. While I missed the Charm City a lot while I was gone, I got to meet a lot of cool people and see the inner workings of Congress for 8 weeks, which is pretty exciting (I was actually walking a few feet behind John McCain once when I was on the Senate side of the Capitol). Here's a quick shoutout to the awesome program that placed me in my internship, the Taiwanese American Citizens League(TACL) - Political Internship Program. It's an awesome program that places interns in the office of an elected official for 8 weeks, teaches about the legislative process through an advocacy project, and provides much needed mentorship. I even got to talk about my experience at the TACL National Convention over Labor Day weekend. I'm so glad I got to be a part of this, even though I missed out on some of Baltimore's summer festivities.
Nevertheless, now that I'm back, I'm looking forward to another great year of learning, laughing, and excitement here at Homewood. This year I'm serving as the Executive President of the Inter-Asian Council, the Chief Advisor of Taiwanese American Students Association, and the National Programs Director of the Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association (ITASA). When I find some free time, I'm definitely going to check out the great lineup of speakers hosted by the Milton S. Eisenhower Symposium and the Foreign Affairs Symposium, and other fun events put on by The HOP or SGA. I'll try to post a little bit every now and then, I'd like to introduce a new contributor to our Hopkins Summer Blog, Sherry! Sherry is also a Pre-College alumnus, so stay tuned for updates from her!
Back in Summer 2011 Austin attended our pre-college program as a Discover Hopkins student. After an amazing summer, he has returned to the Homewood campus as part of the Class of 2016.